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Making a million from other people's rubbish
Sri Carmichael, Evening Standard16.01.08
A City banker who quit his £250,000-a-year job to set up a modern-day rag-and-bone business has seen the company make its first £1 million.
Jason Mohr gave up his "soul destroying" job at investment bank NM Rothschild to open AnyJunk, which removes and recycles items from unwanted office furniture to garden rubbish.
The 38-year-old, who is based in Wandsworth, has won a host of environmental awards and is now expanding across the country.
Mr Mohr charges homeowners and businesses to remove their waste and then recycles as much as possible.
Less than 50 per cent goes to landfill, which he claims is far lower than with other firms carrying out similar work.
Almost everything in his own offices, including some of the computer equipment, was thrown out by someone else.
He said: "I didn't specifically set out to run one of the greenest businesses in the capital but it happened through common sense.
"It seemed crazy to throw away perfectly usable furniture, office stationery and IT equipment when we could use it in our offices and save money as we were starting up. Our ethic is to recycle where possible what we can't reclaim rather than dump it.
"Some of the high-end processing IT equipment is new as we need up-to-date computers to run the business but we use other people's PCs and printers for some functions.
"If you collect enough of this stuff, you can get it to match. We're always coming across treasures that make welcome additions to the office."
AnyJunk, started with the help of a grant from recycling group London Remade, was named Wandsworth council's most environmentallyfriendly business in 2005 and was a finalist in the Guardian's Green Awards 2006.
Mr Mohr, a father-of-two, said he had become painfully aware of how much people throw away unnecessarily.
"People chuck out piles of printing paper and endless plastic water cups. It seems obscene," he said.
AnyJunk opened an office in Birmingham yesterday and Mr Mohr hopes to open premises in Bristol this year. His brand of house clearance has been particularly popular with middle-class parents and young professionals.
"It's about trust," he said. "You don't want some unshaven, hulking brute collecting your rubbish, who you might suspect of being busy casing the joint."
